The UK stock market continued its rally, with the FTSE 100 index notching up its fifth consecutive gain.
However, the mood could hardly be described as euphoric with Footsie trading in a narrow range all day and volume very subdued.
The market's upward move must also be set against signs of further weakness in the manufacturing sector in the US, UK and euro zone.
The FTSE 100 closed 17.8 higher at 5,546.9, compared with a high and low for the day of 5,549.0 and 5,499.5. The FTSE 250 was stronger than the blue chip benchmark, advancing 58.3 to 6,140.5.
The other indices were also higher, with the SmallCap up 17.1 at 2,746.5 and the Techmark 100 20.05 higher at 1,593.72.
There were further signs of a two-speed UK economy, as the purchasing managers' index for the manufacturing sector declined further to 47.0 in July from 47.3 in June, indicating that industry continues to feel the squeeze from the global slowdown and the strong pound.
The Confederation of British Industry survey of the retail sector found, in contrast, that high street sales were extremely buoyant; retailers reporting higher sales outweighed those reporting a decline by 44 percentage points.
The mixed data confirmed the difficult task faced by the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, which is due to announce its decision on interest rates today.
According to Mr Michael Saunders, UK economist at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney: "We suspect that the MPC will leave rates on hold until it becomes clearer whether weakness in manufacturing will drag down consumer spending or whether a pick-up in external growth will ease the pressure on manufacturing and allow the strength of consumer spending to lift the overall pace of growth."
The UK manufacturing sector is not alone in its problems. The euro-zone purchasing managers' index also fell as did the US index. But the latter only added to the feeling that the US Federal Reserve would move to cut interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 50 points higher as London closed and with Merrill Lynch upgrading a batch of semiconductor stocks, the Nasdaq Composite also moved ahead.
Footsie's recent rally seems to have improved the technical position of the market which looked shaky last week as the index touched its lowest level since October 1998.
